Moniepoint Founders Redefine African Fintech as Company Earns TIME100 Recognition

The founders of Moniepoint Inc., Tosin Eniolorunda and Felix Ike, are receiving widespread praise for challenging long-held perceptions about African innovation and demonstrating that globally competitive fintech solutions can be built and scaled from Nigeria. The recognition follows Moniepoint’s nomination to the 2025 TIME100 Most Influential Companies list, a milestone many stakeholders say reflects years of deliberate, locally grounded innovation.

Industry observers point to Eniolorunda’s personal journey as central to Moniepoint’s success. A Mechanical Engineering graduate of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), he chose to build solutions tailored to Nigeria’s financial realities rather than pursue opportunities abroad. His experience at TeamApt Ltd, where he worked closely with Nigerian banks, helped shape products that addressed real gaps in payments and financial access.

Those early efforts led to several breakthroughs that have since become industry standards. Moniepoint pioneered instant point-of-sale transfers, launched Nigeria’s first virtual account services, and built a fully licensed, vertically integrated payments switching and processing infrastructure—an uncommon feat in Africa’s fintech ecosystem.

Complementing that vision is the technical leadership of co-founder Felix Ike, a first-class Computer Science graduate of the University of Lagos. As Moniepoint’s Chief Technology Officer, Ike has engineered the robust systems powering the company’s fast-growing platform, ensuring scalability, security, and resilience as transaction volumes surge across multiple markets.

Today, Moniepoint serves over 10 million businesses and individuals across Nigeria and other African countries, processing millions of transactions daily. In 2025, the company raised more than $200 million to accelerate its expansion across Africa and into global markets—while remaining profitable at scale. Beyond the TIME100 nod, Moniepoint has also earned recognition from CNBC and the Financial Times, reinforcing a growing consensus: transformative fintech innovation can, and does, emerge from Africa’s own talent and institutions.

source: Leadership